BINARY BEAT.

America Online Upgrade Takes Care Of Shortcomings

November 05, 2000|By James Coates.

Q--I recently upgraded to the brand new America Online software, AOL 6.0, and the upgrade promptly created a brand new problem. Every time I try to sign on I get a message telling me to reinstall Dial-up Networking. Please tell me how to do this without getting into more trouble.

Howard Davis, San Jose, Calif.

A--To mark the launch of AOL 6.0 for Windows, I decided I would use the first question from any reader anywhere about AOL 6.0 to introduce to readers the spiffy and feature-laden upgrade to America Online's hugely popular software.

As luck would have it, the first question was about a software bug rather than about any one of the hundreds of new features that the 6.0 software adds to the mix for AOL's generally lucky horde of 25 million customers.

The ranks of generally lucky AOL customers, unfortunately, do not include you, Mr. D. I'll give you the simple fix you need in a second, but first please indulge this battle-scarred veteran AOL observer in some scene-setting.

Back before he devoured Time Warner, America Online's chairman of the board, Steve Case, used to answer my phone calls and even listen to an occasional complaint like yours, Mr. D.

Case had an interesting way of referring to freak incidents where some stray bit of computer code in Windows or maybe a piece of software loaded on some user's machine reacted poorly with AOL's software, creating glitches nobody could quite understand.

He called them "anecdotal cases," meaning that they were interesting technology sidebar stories but not really indicative of any major failing in the software. This writer alone has heard anecdotes from hundreds of readers over the years because something didn't jibe when they attempted to use AOL. Although the vast majority of AOL users have enjoyed clear sailing, there always have been and, I fear, always will be anecdotal cases.

Writing off the problems of an occasional individual as anecdotal, of course, leaves the billionaire Case with the ability to move on to other matters, such as whether to buy a Gulfstream jet or just a Lear while you sit there in San Jose off-line with America Online.

So, Mr. D., the sad fact is that you can count yourself among the rare subset of anecdotally misfortunate souls.

And let me tell you, you're missing more than a private jet and a 10-figure 401(k) when you can't get AOL to dial up for you. Big-time improvements include bringing some sanity to AOL's clunky e-mail, including the ability--at last!--to sort e-mail by sender, date and subject line. A very welcome new shopping feature lets you register a credit card with AOL and then make secure purchases at a very large collection of e-commerce Web sites using the AOL registry for one-click ordering.

(See accompanying review for other details.)

But the most dramatic changes that AOL 6.0 brings have to do with accessing one's America Online account while away from the computer holding the 6.0 software itself.

Case finally starts to deliver on his long-voiced promise of AOL Everywhere with two new services that let subscribers get the bulk of their AOL content by calling up an outside Web site (www.aol.com) or dialing 800-265-1234.

This brand new "AOL by phone" service--which is free for now--has a friendly, intelligent-sounding female computer voice answer and offer to read aloud most of the stuff you care about when logging on via modem. The robot will read you the subject line of each e-mail and then read the entire note if you like. It also will let you say the names of stocks you are following and will respond with a 15-minute delayed quote.

Talking to the robot is a surrealistic experience, and though I found it impossibly slow going to review the 55 e-mails I had unopened when I started this review, it definitely worked, and the notes were read loud and clear by a robot.

Real Twilight Zone stuff, that.

Also available to AOL customers who are away from their computers running 6.0 is a dramatically improved www.aol.com Web site that includes your calendar and address book as well as e-mail, all available for remote access by any Web browser you can find. Access is free.

I would urge AOL subscribers with Pentium II machines and above to rush to upgrade to 6.0 as soon as they can. I assure all who read this column that nothing much can go wrong. Probably.

As for you, Mr. D., you can restore the Dial-up Networking feature in Windows by opening the My Computer icon on your desktop and opening the Control Panel folder and Add/Remove programs. In the display that comes up next, choose Windows Setup. Click on the icon for Communications in the next display and put a check in the box alongside Dial-up Networking and click OK.

Your computer will restart and Dial-up Networking will be ready and waiting.